In the production of laminate board of the aforedescribed type, it has been a common practice to utilize a single stage or single level platen press for effecting the hot pressing of the stack formed by a plurality of kraft paper sheets on which a decor foil layer has been applied to the higher or lower surface to form a stack or packet which is introduced into the press and subjected to hot pressing therein.
Processes for making pressed board in this manner require relatively expensive and complex systems for assembling the sheets into the stack or packet and relatively complex or expensive units for charging the press with the packet and/or removing the packet from the press.
Included in such means, of course, may be means for drawing the kraft paper from the rolls or coils on which the kraft paper is generally supplied and for cutting the kraft paper webs into the sheets which are to be stacked.
It is, however, also known to form decor laminate strip continuously by sandwiching the core layers between foil layers, all of the layers being drawn from respective rolls or coils. Such systems can make use of continuous presses, for example, a double-belt press in which the stacked layers continuously withdrawn from the respective supplies, are guided between a pair of endless steel belts and subjected to pressing between them. A press of this type is comparatively expensive and requires high capital and maintenance cost so that such apparatus is practical only for high production runs. In many cases, the nature of the laminate which is required precludes the use of continuous systems of this type with high production rates.